Be careful of this silk plan, it shredded my poor bettas fins

[BlueHaven]

I got a silk plant from petsmart (http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...ductId=2754907), and it seemed to be just fine, but unfortunately the base of the plant that weighs it down was too sharp and it interfered with his tail healing from a tear, causing them to be shredded at the ends. I feel terrible, but I fixed it by completely covering the base with moss. It's safe for him now and I'm going tomorrow to get him some fin rot medication. I'm using api salt right now
I and did a 75 percent water change, but I wanted to know. will it cause any problems for a betta to use Aquarium salt for a long period of time?
Be careful of silk plants that have rough bases. I find it weird that this would happen though because silk plants are supposed to be specifically made for bettas!

[Adastra]

It's a good idea to sand down the seams on the plastic stems of silk plants and separate them enough so that a fish can swim through safely.

[BlueHaven]

..Okay, i'll check that out, thank you very much. ^_^

[vaygirl]

You can use aquarium salt for up to 10 days. I hope he feels better. :)

[wallywestisthebest333]

Yeah aquarium salt is safe for about a week at one time. If you go long term with it in the reccomended amount then you could cause kidney failure.

Unfortunately the other side of the coin is that if you use lower doses long term then the parasites/infection that's plaguing the fish will become immune to the salt treatment. =/

If you use it for only about a week though (7-10 days) at the proper dosage then it should be fine! =]

Thank you also for the heads up about that plant! =]

I know how you feel about healing then re-shredding issues. =[ It happened to me too. Except it was a plastic plant that split my buddy's fin. =/

Good luck with your little guy! Hope he heals up nicely soon! =]

[BlueHaven]

Thank you for the help!
I think he will be okay.
I checked the plastic part of his plant and it did have a few rough edges so I sanded them down and rinsed it off. That must have been part of the problem, but it should be perfectly fine now. ^^
And thank you for the best wishes, i'm happy to help too.

[derpmeister]

Oh yikes! I have that in my tank. I was wondering how the heck my betta was ripping his fins up... this might be the problem. Thanks for posting!

[sjones]

there are also sharp plastic little nubs on those leaves i do believe, i passed on those

[bettablaze]

I had one of those too I took off the base and wiegh'd it down with gravel. I hope your betta gets better.

[BlueHaven]

Thank you and your welcome. :D
Yea, my petstore has only a small variety of plants for aquariums. That was the only silk plant they had so I got it. It does work and looks very nice. This was the only problem. There were those little nubs on them, but I sanded them down. Thai already made a huge bubblenest above it since I had to take it out to fix it! I think he was afraid it wouldn't come back, haha :)